IN SHORT:
Socio-Economic Development till 2020

Republic Sakha (Yakutia) is the largest subject in RF (3102, 2 thousand square km) and occupies almost the fifth part of the whole country’s territory.

The republic is situated in the north-eastern part of Eurasian continent. It is on the intersection of shortest ways between Europe, Northern America and Asia. More than 40 per cent of the territory is beyond Northern Arctic Circle. The distance between Yakutsk and Moscow is 8468 km, Yakutsk and Khabarovsk- 1590 km. the large territory of the region predetermines low density of settling: 0,31 person/km (the 83rd place in RF).

According to census facts in 2002 year 610,0 thousand people live in 13 towns and 55 work villages, the rest 339,3 thousand people (35, 7 per cent of the whole population) live in 590 rural localities. The republic unites 35 administrative districts (uluses).

The main industrial towns are capital Yakutsk (239,2 thousand people on the 1st of January, 2006 year), Nerungri (65,4 thousand people), Mirny (38,6 thousand people) and Aldan (24,0 thousand people). According to All-Union census in 2002, less than 1000 people live in 80, 3 per cent of all localities, from 1,3 to 25 thousand people live in 10 towns, less than 100 people live in 111 rural localities.

The territory of Republic Sakha (Yakutia) has a low level of infrastructural assimilation. There is no year-round ground transport connection. So, many localities remain isolated from neighboring localities, district centers and the republic capital from time to time. Only 7,7 per cent of rural localities are connected with the district centers by firm surfaced road set.

The republic, which territory is comparable to the whole European part of RF, has serious problems with sizeable regional and zonal differentiation and also with the depth of inter-ulus, inter-municipal contrasts.

The main tasks to solve in the course of planning and budgeting in 2007-2009

With the aim of solution tasks set by RF Government in the sphere of development of human capital, labour resources’ reproduction and potential in Republic Sakha (Yakutia) “the programme of guaranteeing economic and social spheres with professional personnel in Republic Sakha (Yakutia) in 2006-2010 and the main trends till 2015” is accepted.

The aims of the state programme are:

- development of the human capital, forming labour resources, which are capable to reproduct and to develope material and intellectual potential of the republic;
- providing economic and social spheres with professional personnel in Republic Sakha (Yakutia) on average-term and long-term prospects;
- development of training system of professional personnel, which meets requirements of regional labour store.

The main tasks of the programme are:

- the analysis of providing economic and social spheres with professional personnel and prognosis of professional personnel requirements with the regard to average-term and long-term perspective of the republic development;
- perfection of the state regional policy in vocational education area;
- determination preparation extent of professional personnel in higher, secondary and elementary vocational educational institutions, which meets requirements of republic economic and social spheres development;
- making optimal the budget financing system of vocational education;
- formation of monitoring system of economic and social spheres professional personnel.

The programme is active in the 2006-2010 period. It is expected to allocate 38, 7 billion roubles in all to realize the programme. The state budget of Republic Sakha (Yakutia) provides 21, 9 billion roubles and there is also 10, 7 billion roubles of attracted funds.

As the result of programme realization it is planned:

- to provide economic and social spheres with professional personnel taking into account the perspective of their development;
- to raise the competitiveness of professional personnel, productivity of labour;
- to increase the number of specialists, who has profiled education in all economic and social spheres;
- to form an optimal system of training professional personnel, corresponding to the structure of regional economic and social spheres;
- to reduce the rate of unemployment in 3,1 per cent.

The climate peculiarities of the republic cause a high power-consuming degree of economics, due to which “the power-saving programme Republic Sakha (Yakutia) in 2003-2006 and possibly till 2010”.

The main purpose of the programme is to provide the economy of Republic Sakha (Yakutia) with transition to power-saving development, to reduce the budget expenditure and to improve social conditions of people living. This purpose corresponds to federal tasks of raising power-safety, providing macro-economical stability and balance of development.

The programme will be realized with the help of the State Budget resources of all rates and local power-safety funds. Enterprises private funds, bank credits, funds, received as the result of power-saving measures execution and economic sanctions are supposed to serve as Extra-budget resources. The realization of programme helps to save fuel and power resources, to put an end to the tendency of increasing of power-saving products with it’s further reduction.

The main priorities of rapid development and structural reorganization of Yakut economy at forecast period mainly involve formation of conditions, including infrastructural conditions. They help to diversificate economy and to make regional fuel power complex national in its significance in Far East of Russia and to make it international in the whole north-east of Asia.

Along with the development of oil-gas-mining, electro-power industry (in development of generating capacity and integrating nets of electricity transmission), coal industry, processing oil, gas and coal-chemical manufacture, the development of transport complex is the key trend.

The main tasks of social-economic development at period till 2020 are:

1) making the transport, power industry and informational infrastructure, which provide basic spheres of manufacture with the competitive development, comfortable living conditions and communicative freedom of population;

2) realization of the scale economic diversification with the support of fuel power industry block, development of already existing trends and formation of new ones in mineral, raw material complex, stimulation of jewel and lapidary manufacture, taking into account northern specific character, development of ferrous and non-ferrous manufacture, forest complex, tourism and small business;

3) the development of material and perfection of legislative organizing base of building sphere to realize large-scale investment project and to speed up house building;

4) the development of informational technologies and communication services to make common international area of the republic, to render qualitative remote services for inhabitants of remote settlement, including remote education, telemedicine, development of net methods of control;

5) perfection of spatial organization of economy, including development of inter-regional integration, removement of abundant contrasts in social economics development of separate districts, creation and priority development of “points of increase”, inter-regional and regional clusters, connected with the achievement of sizeable synergetic effect gained from coordinated and inter-initiated realization of some investing projects in various spheres;

6) consecutive realization of national projects in education, Health Care and provision with houses, including removement of citizens from decrepit and emergency fund;

7) development of self-management social services paying great attention to rural localities and remote uluses; elaboration, legislative and materially infrastructive provision of new type of self-management. It provides national minorities with more possibilities for self-development and self-realization;

8) cool increase of workable money income of people, stable demographic development, increase of consumers’ store;

9) attraction of local labour resources to perspective economic spheres, decrease of unemployment, provision of occupational employment;

10) active interaction with federal powers, neighbor and interested regions of RF, business structures and civil society institutions to work out state strategy and Far East development programme, joint solution of tasks, based on state-private partnership to develope transport–power industry complex, to make transport and power industry infrastructive;

11) transition from using only federal grants to the scale joint investment in priority projects in the sphere of inter-budgetary relations. These projects provide taxation budget and stable social-economic development of the republic.

Reported by Yakutia-Sakha News Agency
Translated by Zhenya Popova, YSU student.